Death Race 1 by Annabelle

Death Race (1) is about a prison named Terminal Island Penitentiary, and certain inmates who must take part in a pay-per-view broadcast, created by the warden (Joan Allen). These inmates, which includes famous actor Jason Statham, are chosen to participate in a modern gladiator game called ‘Death Race’ as the drivers. Each inmate is also given a female inmate to act as a navigator. Both drivers and navigators drive 3 races over 3 days on a closed track at Terminal Island. On the track, there are items termed ‘pressure plates’ that they must drive over in order to collect certain items; for example, running over a pressure plate with a sign portraying swords activates the player’s offensive weapons, while shields activate defensive weapons such as oil, smoke or even napalm. Skulls activate deadly metal traps which rise up from the track. Drivers use these weapons to kill the other players in any way they can.  Any racer that wins 5 races will be granted freedom by the Warden.  

At the end of one of the races, the most popular driver – “Frankenstein”- dies in an explosion, resulting from malfunctioning weapons (after his navigator was ordered to eject from the car).

Jensen Ames (played by Jason Statham), struggles to provide for his wife and daughter, and his situation is made worse after losing his job. After arriving home one night, Jensen is knocked out by a masked assailant. When he awakens, he finds himself covered in his wife's blood and wielding the weapon that killed his her; he had been framed for his wife’s murder. After being convicted and sent to Terminal Island, Ames gets involved in a fight with another inmate. The warden makes a deal; if he pretends to be Frankenstein (whose death has not been revealed to anyone but Ames himself), she will give him his freedom, and therefore his daughter. This is due to the high ratings that Frankenstein’s character gave the show.

This movie has removed the humour found in the previous movie ‘Death Race 2000’ (Death Race 1 was a remake of this movie).  While there are a lot of action and car chases, it lacks a good plot/story line, and also has a running time of 111 minutes (and yes, this is considered too long).  This coupled with a bad storyline means that the movie boils down to only a series of car races, with a majority of the scenes involving death or violence; so unless you can handle these aspects in a film, this is not the movie for you. Aside from these negatives, Death Race 1 still provides some level of entertainment to viewers as well as cheap thrills and perfect actors for the role.

Rating: 3/5